


The Beetle and The Bees

by potionseagle



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drabble, F/M, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, One Shot, Random & Short, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:07:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25257424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potionseagle/pseuds/potionseagle
Summary: AU where Hermione never became a member of the trio; Hermione and Draco share a moment appreciating Rita Skeeter in a jar.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 3
Kudos: 65





	The Beetle and The Bees

"That's right, you horrid Skeeter woman, bet you'll think twice about accusing me of using a love potion, won't you?"

The little beetle in the jar buzzed and flew around angrily, which only made Hermione laugh.

"Granger, did I hear correctly that you have Rita Skeeter in that jar?"

Hermione's eyes darted up to meet Malfoy's; she was sitting so far from the castle that she was closer to the Forbidden Forest than the section of the grounds where students tend to hang out, which was why she thought her conversation—to the extent it could really be called that—would be private.

"Where's your posse, then, Malfoy?"

"I'm not a goddamned pixie, Granger. You can't distract me that easily."

"So your marks really are because you're that daft, then?" Hermione fired back, less because she thought Malfoy was stupid and more because they had a fierce academic rivalry (not that Hermione had ever slipped from top of the class).

Malfoy ignored Hermione's words and instead walked closer to where she was sitting, crouched down, and began tapping on the jar. The beetle that was Rita Skeeter appeared to panic and flew opposite from Malfoy's taps, which Malfoy responded to by tapping on all sides of the jar randomly. Skeeter ended up in the middle of the jar, trying to hold still while Malfoy rattled it around, laughing, as he sank back into the grass next to Hermione..

"I take it you're not going to try and report me, then?" Hermione asked drily.

"No, I think I would much rather have this be our little secret," Draco responded, his tone suddenly serious.

"If you think you're going to blackmail me, ferret, consider whether you have any evidence."

"Don't call me that, Granger." Hermione would've retorted, but the long pause between "that" and "Granger" told her that he was exerting a significant amount of control not to call her a slur, so she left it there. "I'm not going to blackmail you, although I would love to hear the full story behind this." He tilted the jar in his hand to indicate that "this" was Rita Skeeter and spoke in a conspiratorial tone.

"Well…" Hermione looked at Malfoy at first, but his gaze was so intense that she dropped hers and settled on the beetle instead, which was trying to stay level as Malfoy tilted the jar slightly side-to-side in his hand.

"I began to realize that the thing you're holding in your hands was eavesdropping on conversations on Hogwarts grounds."

Malfoy nodded matter-of-factly in her peripheral vision. "I know," Malfoy drawled in a bored voice. "I've been giving her quotes on Potter all year."

Hermione's heart skipped a beat and she had the urge to yank the jar out of Malfoy's hands, but she wanted to proceed carefully.

Despite her prior discomfort, she met Malfoy's gaze. His eyes were bigger than she had thought they were, as she had always previously seen them narrowed, yet today they were open and piercing. She had also never been close enough to him to notice the small freckles dotting his pale skin, the nearly ninety-degree angle of his cheekbones, or the flecks of bright blue in his otherwise colorless irises.

"What are you staring at, Granger?" His voice was softer than his words would suggest, but the question still broke her out of her reverie.

"If you've been using Skeeter's beetle form to drag Harry through the mud, then why are you acting so pleased that I've trapped her?"

Malfoy shrugged. "I was bored with the newspaper stories; this is more entertaining for me."

Hermione scooted slightly away from Malfoy so that she could lean against a tree; besides, there was something about the way Malfoy was acting that made her nervous, so she was happy for the distance.

"Were you feeding her stories about me as well?" Hermione asked bluntly.

Malfoy nodded; he didn't meet her gaze and the jar in his hands stopped moving, his stillness making it seem as though his entire body was holding in a breath.

"Why? What in Godric's name did I do to you?"

Malfoy shrugged in an exaggerated way and continued to look at the jar instead of her as he responded. "Just for a bit of fun."

"Well thanks, Malfoy, like you aren't enough of a nuisance, following me around and always having some thing or other to criticize about me."

" _I_ wanted to kiss you, Granger." He looked up at her then, and damn if his gaze wasn't piercing and oddly sincere.

"If you want to kiss me, you're going to have to fucking do it, Malfoy, because I don't believe you for a sec—"

But she didn't get to finish her thought, as he carefully moved the jar over to grass beside him and knelt beside where she leant against the tree. He stared at her for a moment, and she admitted to herself that he really _was_ quite handsome up close, especially when he looked at her with such intensity. No one had ever looked at her that way, definitely not Viktor or any other boy.

Despite what she had just said, she couldn't wait any longer and grabbed Malfoy's face to pull him closer. He caught the hint immediately, slipping one hand through her hair to hold the back of her head while the other effectively kept her pinned to her spot against the tree with its rough grip on her shoulder. He kissed her bottom lip first, quickly moving to catch her in a deeper kiss. He tried to pull her closer to him even though there was no room for their faces to be any closer to one another.

He broke the kiss first, but she couldn't say if he was giving her the same look because he was so close to her that she couldn't take in the full picture of his gaze. When he spoke, she could feel the vibration against her lips. "I've wanted to do this for so long, Granger."

"I can't say I've ever thought about it," Hermione answered honestly; Malfoy bristled, pulling back, but she caught him and pulled him in. "But now that we've kissed, it feels like we should have been doing this since… always."

"Am I a better kisser than Krum, then?" Malfoy asked, his mouth pulling up at the corners in a slight smirk.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Yes," she said in an irritated voice, "if you must know, yes."


End file.
